Inversion
by Meowser Clancy
Summary: Companion fic to Intuition. Drabbles for JJ's thoughts on Kate, for each episode of the season.
1. X

JJ is tired of change. She's missed Alex over the long summer; missed having that essential sixth profiler. But, like all in the BAU, she's gotten accustomed to new people. New faces through the years, with different skills and varying degrees of comfort within the team.

She sees Kate as a fresh face. Young. Eager. She's glad for the light Kate brings but she's not looking forward to seeing the light in Kate's eventually dull.

By the end of the case, JJ is intrigued. Kate's like no one she's met before; worked with.


	2. Burn

Kate brings a new beat to the team. There's a tempo in the BAU that she inserts herself into seamlessly, without making a break in the theme.

JJ is impressed at how quickly Kate takes to the job. She used to work alone, mostly, but she's integrating to working within a team without a misstep. She's _happy_ to have people around her. She's _overjoyed_ that she's not bearing the burden alone. Whenever she talks about past cases in reference, there always seems to be a note in her voice saying:

 _I was alone. Not anymore._


	3. A Thousand Suns

She's so quiet on this case. They were in riding in the car and Kate stopped talking.

When they got to the plane, when they boarded and Hotch started to talk about the case, JJ watched Kate and saw the widened eyes, from horror and disbelief. She saw Kate struggling to regain hold on her world.

She wondered what happened to Kate to cause this change. She didn't wonder long; she accompanied Kate to the memorial site after Kate told her.

She wants the team to be there for Kate; for her to have someone to talk to.


	4. The Itch

JJ doesn't like this case at all. It brings back too much. It makes her ache, deep inside. Why won't this woman listen? Why won't she just freaking listen?

Why does it hurt so much to be helpless? It didn't use to hurt like this.

Kate was curled up next to her on the airplane ride back. The new agent looked exhausted, and she was sleeping soundly.

JJ found herself pulling the blanket covering Kate up a little. Someone should feel comfortable on this cursed plane ride home. She'd love for it to be Kate.


	5. If the Shoe Fits

JJ can't stand this. The whole case she's waiting to get home, to explain to Sandy why she just doesn't want to do this yet...or ever.

 _Why_ bring up a subject like that?

She found herself seeking out Kate on the ride home, curling up in the seat next to her and trying to absorb some of the woman's peace of mind and cheerful attitude. She knows that Kate has been through hell; in this job, who hasn't? Yet Kate obviously never lost her heart, like JJ's afraid she's doing right now.


	6. Boxed In

All through the case, JJ had a pounding headache. As the father's crimes were more fully revealed, she hated that men like him had a chance to even be fathers. That you didn't have to pass some sort of test to become a parent.

On the ride home, her headache intensifies. She's trying to get to sleep, when Kate came over and sat next to her.

"Feeling okay?"

"I need a tylenol," JJ confessed, aching.

"I can find you one," Kate promised. And she somehow did, digging through everyone's luggage until they found one last tablet.


	7. Hashtag

Kate=indomitable.

JJ was with Morgan, both tense and waiting for news. Hotch came; and went.

JJ gradually left too, heading back to the BAU. Kate was there, at her desk, and JJ sat at her own desk, pondering things.

Kate had taken care of the press; that couldn't have been an easy job for a woman still fresh from undercover. But she'd known to let JJ and Derek go, that they'd need those moments in the ambulance; Kate knew her place within the team.

JJ wondered if it had been that easy for the previous members.


	8. The Boys of Sudworth Place

She didn't intend to, but she watched Kate as they cleared the house, and saw Kate watching Morgan, immediately in tune with what was going on here. Kate was profiling, her mind was working to put together the pieces.

It makes JJ's heart pound to see how easily Kate can get at Derek's past, how swiftly she's putting the pieces together.

When Kate talks to Derek at the case's end, JJ feels a bit frozen. What other things does Kate notice? Why hasn't she talked to...anyone else?

JJ wants to let it out.


	9. Fate

JJ doesn't believe the news at first. Rossi, her mentor...has a daughter?

It seems irreconcilable with the man she knows, but after, when he gets back, it's amazing to see the change, the pure _joy_ in him now.

Family will give that to people. Joy.

She laughed and Kate, next to her, looked up. "Something funny?"

Kate was ready for something to lighten the load.

"I'm just happy for Rossi, he's found such Joy," JJ murmured.

Kate nodded, eyes dancing.

There's more joy in the world; more people to share with. JJ's content.


	10. Amelia Porter

The case has ended. The boy was rescued.

JJ watches as Kate reunites the siblings.

The flight home is quiet. Their all off in their own world.

JJ feels the silence and she doesn't like it. She wants to talk, to open up. Kate would be a good place to _start_ , since she doesn't know, and won't prejudge. Not that the team would, but it would be so hard to tell them _more_ when they already knew so much...they'd wonder why she hadn't told them everything...last year...

The season is changing. JJ cries.


	11. The Forever People

One more time. One more word. One more day.

Her feet walk the floor and she can't see the BAU corridors in front of her. It's over. She tackled Askari. Maybe she won.

Kate's by the elevators, texting. She looks up. "Derek told me."

"It's never over," JJ says flatly.

"Never," Kate agrees. "You aren't alone, JJ."

"It feels like I am."

Kate shifts from foot to foot, nervous. "You can talk to me."

JJ knows the truth of the statement. She _should_ talk to someone, besides earlier; Reid. But the words don't come.


	12. Anonymous

She didn't intend to close herself off. That wasn't the plan. She had meant to talk, to open up, to tell _someone_ and she hadn't. She came back to work, a long weekend later, and she hadn't said a word. Not to Will, Hotch, Emily, or Reid.

It would be so easy.

Yet it was so hard to take that step.

She came back still silent, barely freer after the events in Nevada.

She came back; Kate was there, mouthing words at her desk.

Kate was there.

Kate. One more step that JJ couldn't take.


End file.
